I need to press Alt-Backspace two times in a row to get it to fill foreground color after updating to CC 2018 this morning. Is there a setting change I need to make or is this a bug? Thanks for a quick reply. This is a big part of my job as a comic book colorist and driving me nuts today.

I do NOT want a workaround... I want a fix for something that never should have been broken. I want real users to beta the software (hello, I'm volunteering) and not lab monkeys testing useless new features like Rich Tool Tips aka one of the first things I turned off (leave that nonsense to PS Elements).

Muscle memory alone makes any workaround useless... the only good news is that I have learned not to remove previous versions so that I can still keep working but this is ridiculous. The hotfix should have already been released so again... what is the holdup?

It seems like the update to Photoshop CC 2018 has caused a few problems. Aside from the annoying ones (those tooltip help videos are killing me), it seems like modifier keys (shift, alt) aren't working right for me anymore.

In 2017, I used to be able to hold alt and press the arrows to make a copy of the layer. That no longer works for some reason. I can hold alt and drag the mouse, but that doesn't help me at all. I'm working on a grid, and everything needs to line up, so I use pixel counts to do so (in order to properly size mockups for our developers). Now I need to copy the layer by alt-dragging the mouse, then move it back to it's original position, then use the arrows to move it. Why was this changed?

Along the same lines, I often use shift-arrows to move things by 10 pixels. Half the time this works, 25% of the time it doesn't move at all, and 25% of the time it moves by 1 pixel instead. All while I'm still holding the shift key (not even letting go in between!). I use this function hundreds of times a day. These issues have slowed down my production by half!

CTRL+ALT+0 combination for reset zoom does not work everytime. I can't understand why, it seems that the focus is not on the document working on layers. I can't reproduce the problem, for now.(sorry for my bad english)

Back then in CC 2017 ,sometimes i use my keyboard to do quick fixes in my stuff.. Ofcourse, when i mistake something i smash CTRL+ALT+Z and it'd instantly do so.

HOWEVER, in CC 2018, doing the same smash it won't work inmediatly..Sadly, the temporal fix is to press and hold (then latterly press) CTRL ALT Z in that order so that every Z tap in the end would work

Curiously, using my Wacom Intuos Pro 2017 table's button with the same keyboard function doesn't have the error, making every poke to the button to undo

Will there be a fix for the keyboard method....? and NO, i don't wanna change the key shortcuts..I am used to this method..

Yeah, a hotfix is in order. This is one of 2 major problems that required me to revert back to the previous version. I edit over a hundred images daily and most of them have to be on an individual basis.I use autohotkey to create macros that streamline the work I do (they're like actions but not limited to photoshop) Sometimes Backspace needs to be hit twice, sometimes 5 times. The other issue is that the images dropped in center where the cursor is instead of centering to the canvas. Has an Adobe rep acknowledged these are bugs somewhere and said a hotfix is or update is coming?

They have been completely silent on the issue other than the vague and noncommittal "we are investigating" canned answer they've copy/pasted in several locations. It's been 2 weeks. They obviously don't care. Why would they care? They already have your money and they know you don't have any alternatives besides GIMP, which is no real choice at all. It's a very sad and difficult situation but unfortunately we have to either live with it or roll back. It's painfully apparent that they have no intention to address this issue with any sort of haste - if at all. The Adobe department managers and software engineers are probably rolling in piles of CC-generated cash while laughing at our misery in between drug-fueled brainstorming sessions where they draw up the next batch of useless bells and whistles.

Actually Affinity is a great cheap alternative, but anyway, I'm not sure that they don't care just because they have our money. They have hoops to jump through; even with some insight into their type of business we don't have a crystal ball to see what the issue is on their end. Maybe there are legal reason they can't make a statement, maybe they're close to releasing a fix. I can't imagine how painful the testing process is for windows. I don't know, do you?

I think it's clear that the issue is that they didn't test the software before they released the update. There's no way this happened any other way. They probably paid a bunch of temps $10/hr to specifically address items on a checklist of the latest "features" to be added by the update. Anyone who actually knows how to use the software would never have missed this. They broke critical, basic functionality that has been in place for over 20 years. It's an oversight of epic proportions and frankly it's inexcusable.

Josh I'm in agreement in regards to your rage and annoyance with Adobe's recent release. I'm sure many of us would happily volunteer to test their work before release , sign NDAs etc to ensure our workflows are not interrrupted by Adobe's update. I'm at odds as to why Adobe doesn't attempt such a program to ensure quality. I too am open to alternative applications, but anything I try is lacking what I need in some areas.

Thanks for showing some solidarity, John v. I feel like a lot of people
in this thread are being far too complacent regarding this issue, and
are being far too understanding and forgiving - simply willing to accept
workarounds instead of a legitimate fix. Adobe NEEDS to hear about the
level of disenchantment and ill-will they are creating here. On an
individual level I choose to speak with my wallet, but on a professional
level my employer puts me in a position where I unfortunately have to
deal with this nonsense.

Please, hurry up! I like 2018 very much and I want it stable. version 2017 have some problems too, eg with guides and liquify, and it's bothernig me. You introduced a solution in 2018 (that has given rise to other problems), and I really want to work in 2018. But I can't, it's too buggy. This update was so big, you changed so many basic functions and you have problems with everythig - alt, smoothing and healing brush, actions, exporting, image size and png files, liquify, fonts, adding images to existing files, ... Well, I changed my mind. Don't hurry up. I think you hurried up, when you released this version, these bugs are too frequent and you must seen them at testing stage. You really hurried up when you released it. My only hope - it will exist stable 2018. I mean 2018, not 2019!

First, like Pete says, we're actively working on a solution to these bugs and we actually really do care about this problem. We certainly did NOT see these bugs coming and would like to get you a fix ASAP.

As for testing, well, I personally did a keyboard pass for this release. But I guess I always managed to press CNTRL before ALT or use some other combo which didn't trigger this bug (testing every, single key-combo isn't realistic). At the same time, not a single person in our prerelease program reported this bug either. If someone reading this is truly interested in joining our Photoshop prerelease program, we'd actually love to have you. Ping me back and I'd be happy to get the process started and get you into the program.

David. I wasn't complaining. I just posted the temporary way to get it to work. I understand it's impossible to catch every bug in a program let alone one as complex as Photoshop. I've been helping as much as possible with the questions on this forum and others. I also stress that the person includes a list of hardware/software in the post as it may gives us clues to what is wrong.

Hi David, I responded to your email yesterday... hopefully you got it but the short answer is, yes, I am definitely interested in the prerelease program. BTW, while testing every shortcut 'may' not be realistic, it seems surprising that no one noticed that literally every shortcut that involves the ALT key is affected.

Hi David, I responded to your email yesterday... hopefully you got it but the short answer is, yes, I am definitely interested in the prerelease program. BTW, while testing every shortcut 'may' not be realistic, it seems surprising that no one noticed that literally every shortcut that involves the ALT key is affected.

The testing thing - I have requested some people who have indeed updated to CC2018 to test the alt shortcut issue, and it seems it is not a 100% widespread thing. Even after asking people to start with pressing alt, some people's installation are just working.

Myself, my ctrl+alt+z is wacom shortcut is working fine, while I know a handful who have their shortcut broken; I can't make alt+backspace work, while other people have no trouble with it at all.

I think it's more that it's just not important to some people's workflow. I was ranting to the other graphics guy I work with about how ridiculous it is that this issue could be overlooked. I told him that Alt-Backspace was broken and he just shrugged and said "what does that do?" I rolled my eyes and asked "how do you even fill stuff in Photoshop?" And he replied that he uses the Paint Bucket. I nearly had to leave the room.

You should get an email today. I was offline last night to bring my toddler trick-or-treating...

As for testing the shortcuts, well, I'd like to share with everyone just a glimpse of how it works.

I think I did about a full day's testing. Now, that might sound like a lot -- eight hours should be more than plenty to find this, right? -- but if you keep in mind that the average US keyboard has 101 keys, 42 of which are valid for ALL shortcuts and 25+ more for certain ones, with three different modifiers (CNTRL, ALT, and SHIFT) and that Mac has one more (CMD) and that if I had ten seconds to set and test just the universal shortcut combinations only, an English-only pass over the application would take more than three weeks (42 x [3+2+1+1]+[4+3+2+1+1] *10 / 60*8*5). And that's just customizable menu commands -- that doesn't include panels, tools, hardcoded, or undocumented shortcuts, many of which require putting the app in a particular state to verify. Heck, those three weeks would NOT have caught this particular combo, since Backspace is one of the "sometimes valid" keys...! Now, add the seven completely different writing systems we support (usually via 102 keyboards!) as well as the other 19 languages (and don't forget to double it to check both OSes), and well, I believe it comes out to more like nearly two solid years doing nothing else (it should be a lot more, actually, but many European languages have the very similar layouts, so they can be skipped/grouped)...and I still haven't even included checking a single non-English version of the application yet...those numbers are just with the US app and non-English hardware...=8-O

Now, the logical follow up question is, why didn't I find this particular high-traffic issue, other than I squeezed all that into an eight hour day? Well, it might have been introduced after my pass or that I do tend to press CNTRL, then SHIFT, then ALT when using a right-handed mouse...but that's MY workflow process.

And that's where prerelease comes in. We do rely on those testers to try what we can't due to logistic/scalability limitations -- to experiment with their workflows and processes. But, unfortunately, not one of them found this either. Nor did any of the testers who validate our localized versions.

Rereading my message, it sounds like I'm being defensive or whiny -- I'm not trying to be -- I know I do good work. My goal is to illuminate and personalize the process for you. Insight usually leads to understanding. Yes, this was a serious bug and I'm sure it would have annoyed the heck out of me if I had run into it, but we ABSOLUTELY did not ship it on purpose. I fully agree with and appreciate John Maguire's comment about catching bugs -- Photoshop is actually a pretty massive and complicated application and as a result, it's quite possible for the unintended consequences of fixing a bug to trigger or create another one. In fact, in retrospect, I believe that might have been what happened here. And it's for that precise reason that dot releases take time -- the last thing in the world we want is to make the situation worse by rushing out a fix that includes new bugs.

Does that make sense?

Again, sorry for the problem and please believe that we are actively working on a solution. In the future, you can be part of that process via prerelease. Emails are on their way...8-)Thanks,David

p.s. -- full disclosure: The machine I'm typing this post on still has my 102 Turkish-layout keyboard connected that I was using for testing shortcuts (I touch type, so I don't look at the keys when I'm writing in English).

Getting this level of information is certainly informative and
appreciated. I know software testing takes time, bugs can be introduced
by fixes, one thing can break the next, etc. I'm aware of all that.
The only thing I take issue with regarding your explanation is that I
feel that I could "test drive" any version of Photoshop within an hour
and discover whether or not the major tools and functions are broken.
Every last filter, every last key combo, every single scenario - no,
definitely not. But just basic functionality like filling with a
color? Yeah, I encountered this bug within 5 minutes of using CC2018,
and I find it very difficult to grasp that anyone using Photoshop under
simulated "real world" conditions would miss this.

I haven't
even mentioned the bug I've discovered with leading/line spacing in the
Character panel - that's annoying as well but not like this one.
Adobe's business direction the last 5 years or so has colored much of
what I have to say on the matter, but putting all that aside - the
source of my immense frustration about this Alt-keystroke issue is the
extremely basic nature of this function. That is what makes it so
unbelievable that it was missed. But anyway, thanks for your candor on
the matter, it's much more than we usually get on a software forum.

It's somehow sad to see that some individuals manage to build up so much pressure on you, that you feel the need to justify yourself.While I'm partially in agreement, that this issue shouldn't have happened at all, I, and I'm sure many others, totally get that it still can happen.I'm looking forward to finally be able to use V19.0 soon.

Is the Pre-Release Version instanced from the regular Photoshop installation?If so, I would be happy to participate.BestMastey

Not whiny at all David! Thanks for the reply :)As someone who have at least a little bit of experience with game QA (*shudder* network testing brr), I know what an monumental and often thankless job it is.If we can assist in testing in any way too, just let us know, and I'm glad to help!

Wow, in the time I wrote that, a number of other posts came up. I'd like to reply to a couple of you, in the interest of being transparent, informative, and just to say "thank you." Let's see, so as not to be disjointed...

Ursula, thank you and you are correct. This bug seems to be tied to the timing of when you hit the ALT key compared to other key strokes. If it's NOT the first key and you have another modifier, it will NOT happen. Moreover, I do not get this all the time on my Win10 machine but it does happen on all versions of Windows. 8-(

Josh, you are correct. Not all users have the same workflow. Generally, I don't fill a whole layer, so it's not something would regularly test. Similarly, testing the whole app takes a remarkably long time. <please read this next sentence with a jovial, playful voice in mind>I'd love you to join the prerelease team and put your money where your mouth is!8-) Seriously, would you want to try this out for yourself? I know it sounds really easy, but I honestly believe you'd see that there are literally thousands of workflows out there and one persons critical path is another persons "what, you can DO that? Why would you even WANT to do that?" As for the Leading bug you mentioned, that's another one of the major issues we're working on. It's tied to the display of ONLY transformed type and the failure came out of left field (more like Pluto!) and was broken at the 11th hour before shipping -- the math isn't being done right due to a change to another widget.

Thank you, Mastey; I'll follow up with you via email.

And John, I so wish that this could be automated! We tried a few years back, but the problem is that actual keystrokes are the only solid way to test. 8-( You should've seen the drama when we added all the Eastern European keyboard layouts...! =8-O

David, feel free to message me with details. As long as you understand that I only run CC at work... philosophically, I am against the concept of subscription-only software and I choose to run with my permanent license of CS5 on my personal computers for my own projects and my own design work. But as far as my day job goes... if I can run beta/pre-release versions alongside stable mainstream releases, then sure, I can test when I can.

I absolutely believe that Adobe did not deliberately release this version knowing of the bug. And that is exactly the problem.

It sounds from your testing descriptions that Adobe is still doing manual testing of each release. Photoshop is a behemoth application, used in literally millions of different ways by millions of different people. As you correctly point out, there is no way possible for humans to test all of the functionality in every release.

Consequently, it's very hard to believe that Adobe has not implemented extensive test automation. Having been a software manager for over 30 years, to the VP level, it's obvious to me that that is what is needed here. As an example, it would be extremely easy to develop software to inject every possible keyboard input; single keys, double keys, holding each key down for a specific amount of time before the next key is pressed, in any combination, order, etc., etc. and verifying correct Photoshop behavior. Clearly this level of testing is not possible for a human, but is very easy for a program written to test Photoshop (and incidentally, every other Adobe app with keyboard input).

Test automation is difficult and expensive to implement the first time. But it has been proven over and over to save significant costs in the long run. There is an old software adage that in my experience rings quite true... It is at least 10 times more expensive to fix a bug found by customers after release as it is to fix it before release. Not to mention the loss of customer satisfaction and damage to user-base good will that this kind of issue creates. The key is knowing about the bug so you have the opportunity to fix it.

This problem does not lie with the individual developers or testers. I have no doubt that every one of them is doing the best they can in the time allotted. This is an Adobe management problem.

Thanks for your feedback and your understanding. One of the reasons I do so much work on the forums is to specifically hear what our users are saying and bring that back to the team. I mean, Agile development is based on iterative feedback and evaluation, right?

While it is true that we do manual testing, there's actually a huge and elaborate suite of automated tests each of us have written as well. Such scripting is actually a requirement for every new feature. Heck, no build is even released to QE until it's passed a fairly thorough automated smoke-test. My international file I/O script is a bit of a behemoth, for instance... Unfortunately, certain bugs seem to be only triggerable via actual use -- scripting does not reveal the problem. Keyboard shortcuts is one of those. I totally agree with you that automation is awesome and we try to use scripting to validate everything we can. But there are, unfortunately, limits to what it can uncover despite multiple, high-level inquiries into this specific topic. 8-(

I've found that in use with other modifier keys, Alt must be pressed last before pressing whatever letter key is required. Ex: For multiple Undos I must press Ctrl before Alt, then press Z. If I do that, it always works.

(I usually press Ctrl-Alt more or less simultaneously, and I'm finding out that I hit Alt first at least 75 percent of the time. Moomph.)

There was a mention of the Windows Fall Creators Update. I have not yet installed that update.

Am beginning to wonder if the alt+backspace problem may have something to do with the latest windows update. Could it be something in the Fall creators update. I myself have it and Alt+backspace doesn't work. Just a thought!

Am wondering if the people that it does work for don't have the update yet?

I think one of us colorists definitely needs to be on some sort of pre-release testing team. Even though a lot of our workflows differ, there's a huge overlap of essential tools and shortcuts we all rely upon hundreds of times a day, and, like Marissa, this particular issue is really causing me a lot of grief and lost time.

I need to press Alt-Backspace two times in a row to get it to fill foreground color after updating to CC 2018 this morning. Is there a setting change I need to make or is this a bug? Thanks for a quick reply. This is a big part of my job as a comic book colorist and driving me nuts today.

guys - for me it's not only the clt backspace. I experience a lot of shortcut problems. [ ] for resizing brushes doesn't work (well - actually it starts working after a few attempts). What i found is that when i work with a Brush, change to Eraser and try to resize using [ ] - the tool reverts back to my previous tool (Brush). It is the same. when changing from eraser to Brush. So it seems that the modifier shortcuts are stuck on a previously selected tool. When i press the tool shortcut twice (eg. BB), and then try to resize, the [] shortcuts work.

Ah, so I'm not the only one with this issue then. Actually you don't have to remove the whole extension, turning off events in File -> Scripts -> Script Events Manager... window is enough. I already wrote to Pixel Squid guys about this, hope they'll fix this soon.

I've gone back to using Photoshop CC 2017 and will continue to do so until the problems are fixed. Would be nice to have brush smoothing but alas we can't have everything (yet). I understand that there are a number of things to test each time you roll out a new version, but surely a command as fundamental as Alt+Backspace should be at the top of the list?!

David, it is being looked into as we speak. but if you look at all of the keyboard combinations available in PS you' realize it to be a daunting task. In the meantime there is a work around which is to hit backspace twice. alt+backspace+backspace

John, I appreciate you trying to be helpful by providing workarounds, but trying to pacify people's agitation can be equally as frustrating as the bugs themselves. This is one of many major bugs in the update. If people do not voice their displeasure and continue to do so until the bugs are fixed, it sends out the message that it's ok to release broken software and take as long as they want to correct the issues. This is not a video game, this is a professional tool that many of us rely on to make a living and support our families. The "daunting" task is not being tackled by a single programmer working out of his basement, this is a mega corporation we're talking about that charges (perhaps rightfully so) a premium price to have the best software the industry has to offer. I encourage you and others to not settle for mediocre service or a business model that seems to bypass real world testing of core components in order to push out new (and arguably marginally useful) features.

O' believe me. If I find a bug, I find out everything I can and post it to the techs right way and also tell the person to keep complaining until it's fixed. My one complaint to adobe is to make the option to keep prior versions of PS and LR the default rather than an option. That way users can still accomplish their work while we debug the latest version even though they can reinstall it.

This really should be fixed by now. I understand 2018 was a fairly substantial update, but I also don't buy the response above from David about workflows. Sure if it's an obscure command that is occasionally used but the alt key is used considerably by the default keyboard shortcuts and the majority are now broken. Workarounds are not ideal because you are retraining muscle memory that when fixed will have to revert back. Many simply don't have time to revert to previous versions reinstall settings layouts etc (since the sync feature was taken away as well, can take a while depending on how much customization has been made).

Hotfixes for vital issues like this should be sooner, (if games can be launched then patched on day 1 or 2 why can't the CC suite?) I pay over £600 per year for the suite, CC is not cheap and your community of customers are losing time and revenue by working with broken software. May seem pedantic but seconds over a day become minutes and hours over weeks/months.

There was a time when Adobe didn't have much competition for this field but that has changed. I can already see myself working away from the program to competitors such as Affinity/Sketchbook/Pro Create etc. This debacle is only going to push other customers in the same direction.

Whilst I had no issues with CC as a premise, Adobe still seems to have the same monopolistic attitude that end users will have to put up with these problems. Sorry but they won't.

If it's not fixed within the week I'll be sending an official complaint, and requesting compensation (as many other decent companies offer when these things arise).

It appears to be working the way it's supposed to once again. And the leading/line spacing bug seems fixed, too.

I just wish it hadn't taken 4 weeks for this fix. It took me less than 5 minutes to confirm that these two features worked - including the download and install time. I hope Adobe will devote at least that amount of time to quality assurance in the future.

Sorry to get in one last jab, but Adobe earned it with this one. Some people may thank you for this fix, but I can't offer thanks for fixing something that should have never been released in its broken state. I would have rather Adobe delayed the release by 4 weeks instead of putting paying customers through this. We pay a premium for a premium product and in return we demand premium performance out of that product.

Customer Advocates, Official Reps, and Employees in this thread are to be commended for your patience and detail. I know you're all just cogs in a giant a corporate machine. The behemoth you work for needs to take a serious look at what's happening with Electronic Arts on Reddit right now, and then take a figurative look in the mirror, and realize that a major software release with bugs like this is only about meeting a deadline, pleasing shareholders, and being able to tout your new bells and whistles on social media in an attempt to attract new customers. Whatever it's about, it's not about the users.

Customers are getting seriously fed up with the microtransaction business model and all the problems it entails. Call it a subscription, call it software-as-a-service, whatever you want, but it's microtransactions and it's the business model Adobe follows now. We may not have a choice in how Adobe delivers its product any more, but we always have a choice. I've made my choice, which is to stick with CS5 and only use CC if my employer is paying the bill. If you're not careful you may find that one day a majority of your most die-hard users have made their choice as well.

Question!... Besides solving now the shortcut, does exporting a huge 3500x3500 file or below doesn't do the illustrator PNG Export bug?

What i mean is.. Exporting a file in PNG in illustrator 2018 (i repeat, 2018!) with 300ppi, transparency and Art Sampling thingy or whatever, it exported a 72ppi PNG in the end... Ending up as a pretty WHAT?!d up pic... And making Photoshop look like a..Well, ya know what i mean...

Also, did the same bug got solved for illustrator 2018 too or...?

Sorry for the offtopic, but these are my everyday drawing tools and i must know..Also bug fixes etc...